This invention relates to a bed and, more particularly, to a patient supporting bed having a stabilizing mechanism facilitating stabilized support of the patient supporting member in all elevated positions thereof and a traveling fowler mechanism movable to elevated positions without necessitating patient movement lengthwise of the patient supporting member in order to accommodate the elevated position of the fowler section.
Wheel supported beds for use in patient care have become more and more sophisticated and more versatile. Beds used as patient supports are now being used to transport patients from a room in which patient care is provided to other facilities within a health care establishment without necessitating removal of the patient from the bed. As a result, it has been a desire to lighten the weight of the patient supporting bed while, at the same time, maintaining a stabilized patient supporting member relative to the base structure for the bed. In beds wherein the patient supporting member is elevatable by hydraulic jacks, electric jacks or the like, it has heretofore been necessary to provide a plurality of such jacks in order to maintain a stabilized arrangement of the patient supporting member on the base structure. It is a desire of this invention to facilitate the reduction of the number of hydraulic jacks, electric jacks or the like and yet maintain the stability of the patient supporting member relative to the base.
Another situation with respect to patient supporting beds having a fowler section adjacent the head end is that when the fowler section is elevated from a horizontal position to one of many elevated or inclined positions forming an obtuse angle with the remainder portion of the patient support member, the fowler section in a sense effects an urging of the patient supported on the patient supporting member toward the foot end of the patient supporting member as the fowler section is elevated from the horizontal position to the aforesaid inclined position. It is a desire to provide a fowler traveling mechanism which will allow the fowler section to be elevatable without necessitating an altering of the position of the patient supported on the patient supporting member.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a bed for supporting a patient thereon wherein the patient supporting surface is elevatable relative to the base therefor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bed, as aforesaid, wherein a single hydraulic or electrically operated jack is provided for facilitating an elevating of the patient supporting member relative to the base.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bed, as aforesaid, wherein a stabilizing mechanism is provided between the base structure and the patient supporting member to maintain the patient supporting member stable in every elevated position thereof relative to the base.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bed, as aforesaid, wherein the use of the stabilizing mechanism enables the number of hydraulic jacks or electrically operated jacks to be reduced and to have the jack or jacks oriented adjacent the geometric center of the base structure as well as operatingly engaged with the patient supporting member adjacent the geometric center location thereof.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bed, as aforesaid, wherein the patient support surface stabilizing mechanism is of durable construction and requires little or no maintenance.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bed having a patient supporting member with an elevatable fowler section having associated therewith a mechanism that prevents the patient from being moved lengthwise of the bed in response to movements of the fowler section from the horizontal position toward an elevated or inclined position relative to the remainder portion of the patient supporting member.
It is a further object of the invention to provide the fowler section with a guide section and structure for facilitating low friction guiding of the fowler section with respect to the guide structure therefor, even when forces tending to twist the fowler section out of a generally flat orientation are applied to the fowler section.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bed, as aforesaid, wherein the traveling fowler section is of a durable construction requiring little or no maintenance.
The objects and purposes of the invention are met by providing a bed having a base, a pedestal mounted on the base and a patient supporting member mounted on the pedestal. The pedestal is generally centrally oriented relative to the base and to the patient supporting member and includes a mechanism for effecting an elevating of the patient supporting member relative to the base. A stabilizing mechanism is provided for enabling the pedestal to accommodate differing elevations between the base and the patient supporting member and yet facilitate a maintaining of longitudinal axis congruency between the relatively movable components of the pedestal so that an orientation of the patient supporting member will remain relatively fixed with respect to the base independent of a height of the patient supporting member relative to the base.
In addition, the patient supporting member of the bed has a fowler section wherein the lower region thereof is supported for movement toward the head end of the patient supporting member as the fowler section is elevated from a horizontally aligned position to other positions oriented at an obtuse angle with respect to the remainder portion of the patient supporting member. This movement of the lower region of the fowler section enables the patient to remain situated on the patient supporting member and without necessitating longitudinal movement of the patient relative to the patient supporting member in response to varying angles of inclination of the fowler section with respect to the remainder portion of the patient supporting member.